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Cafe with a view – and a mugful of memories Cafe with a view – and a mugful of memories
(7 months later)
Three Peakers and Pennine Wayers refresh themselves with beans on toast and capacious mugs of Yorkshire tea as they recount their endeavours. The cafe in Horton-in-Ribblesdale, like the adjacent house I grew up in, is at the end of a terrace with a grandstand view of Penyghent, 694m (2,277ft ), above. As a boy I first scaled this lion couchant by scrambling up the gritstone box of its nose and grabbing handfuls of its mane, namely long, wiry grasses. At 16 I traversed all Three Peaks, these 24 miles including the Table Mountain look-alike Ingleborough (2,372ft/723m) and Yorkshire’s Everest, Whernside (2,415ft 736m).Three Peakers and Pennine Wayers refresh themselves with beans on toast and capacious mugs of Yorkshire tea as they recount their endeavours. The cafe in Horton-in-Ribblesdale, like the adjacent house I grew up in, is at the end of a terrace with a grandstand view of Penyghent, 694m (2,277ft ), above. As a boy I first scaled this lion couchant by scrambling up the gritstone box of its nose and grabbing handfuls of its mane, namely long, wiry grasses. At 16 I traversed all Three Peaks, these 24 miles including the Table Mountain look-alike Ingleborough (2,372ft/723m) and Yorkshire’s Everest, Whernside (2,415ft 736m).
Related: Novice cavers find marvels beneath the fissured limestone
The area is also popular with cavers, though they have to be wary during inclement weather. The worst of the new year’s floods missed this little community on the banks of the upper Ribble, but places like Ribchester further west in the Ribble Valley were swamped.The area is also popular with cavers, though they have to be wary during inclement weather. The worst of the new year’s floods missed this little community on the banks of the upper Ribble, but places like Ribchester further west in the Ribble Valley were swamped.
“That’s limestone country,” says a walker by the quaint clock-card timepiece on the wall that has recorded the start and end time for Three Peak ramblers and runners over many years. “These uplands are a sponge. They soak up rainwater, then spill it out lower down to feed rivers.”“That’s limestone country,” says a walker by the quaint clock-card timepiece on the wall that has recorded the start and end time for Three Peak ramblers and runners over many years. “These uplands are a sponge. They soak up rainwater, then spill it out lower down to feed rivers.”
In 1950 my brother walked up Vicarage Lane. On the moors above he met water rushing down a normally dry valley. The reason? After heavy rains (then, as recently, the Aire flooded parts of Leeds), Hull Pot, a huge pothole 91m long, 18m wide and 18m deep, recessed into the ground like a ship’s hull, was brim-full of water and overflowing.In 1950 my brother walked up Vicarage Lane. On the moors above he met water rushing down a normally dry valley. The reason? After heavy rains (then, as recently, the Aire flooded parts of Leeds), Hull Pot, a huge pothole 91m long, 18m wide and 18m deep, recessed into the ground like a ship’s hull, was brim-full of water and overflowing.
Related: In gumboots round the Three Peaks Race
I drain my mug, take my leave of the proprietor, Matthew Bayes, a Hortonian since a lad, and walk across fields to Bransghyll Head. Here, from a cave beneath pine trees, a beck goes on to join the Ribble, rolling on to Preston and the sea. Dye has indicated that it comes from Hull Pot.I drain my mug, take my leave of the proprietor, Matthew Bayes, a Hortonian since a lad, and walk across fields to Bransghyll Head. Here, from a cave beneath pine trees, a beck goes on to join the Ribble, rolling on to Preston and the sea. Dye has indicated that it comes from Hull Pot.
This time the water is dyed beer-brown from the peat. Cutting it fine, I just manage to catch my train north on the Settle-Carlisle line, with a rainbow’s end touching the 19th-century station. Next stop: Ribblehead with its photogenic 24-arch viaduct across Batty Moss, near where the Ribble rises.This time the water is dyed beer-brown from the peat. Cutting it fine, I just manage to catch my train north on the Settle-Carlisle line, with a rainbow’s end touching the 19th-century station. Next stop: Ribblehead with its photogenic 24-arch viaduct across Batty Moss, near where the Ribble rises.